Meat encasing machines have a linker which uses a meat emulsion pump connected to a stuffing tube upon which a shirred casing is mounted. Meat emulsion is extruded from the stuffing tube into the casing and the filled casing is rotated by means of a chuck and delivered to a linker for creating a linked strand of sausages. The linked strand then passes through a rotating looping horn and loops of sausages from the strand are deposited on hooks of a conveyor located downstream from the horn. These conventional machines mechanically connect the operation of the horn and the conveyor to coordinate their respective functions. Special attention then must be given to coordinate the action of the pump with respect to the horn and the conveyor.
A cycle of the foregoing machine is completed as each "stick" of shirred casing is filled, and the pump is disengaged. The "stopped" portion of the horn needs to be assessed before a new cycle with a new shirred casing stick is implemented. While the down time between cycles is brief, in the order of 2 to 4 seconds or more of an 18 second cycle, this down time contributes to the inefficiency of the overall operation.
It is therefore a proposed object of this invention to reduce the down time between cycles in the operation of a sausage encasing machine.
It is a further object of the invention to simplify the operation of the pump clutch from cycle to cycle so as to reduce the down time between cycles.